Enterprise Minister Peter Burke will take over<\/a> O\u2019Donovan\u2019s duties while the Limerick TD continues to recover.\u00a0<\/p>\nThere has been much written and speculated about when it comes to just what went on between the two men, with a particular focus on a phone call that took place directly before O\u2019Donovan took ill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harris has staunchly denied that it was a tetchy or angry exchange, instead pointing to how he has a \u201cduty of care\u201d to his ministers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste will be hoping that a statement issued by O\u2019Donovan today might put some of the speculation to bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to particularly thank the T\u00e1naiste for his consistent and ongoing support for me and for my work, which I look forward to returning to in due course,\u201d that statement read.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, there are even bigger fish to fry for the party leader this week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just a few days out from the Fine Gael ard fheis in Cork where he will be hoping he can reset the narrative, not just around his leadership, but also the direction of his party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are promises of the big reveal of the party\u2019s white paper on Irish unity.<\/p>\n
However, much to Harris\u2019\u00a0annoyance, no doubt, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin was out speaking about his grand plans of an independent unit being set up to look at the practicalities of a united Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Harris\u2019 leadership is not at risk, it still might not be an easy outing for him.\n<\/p>\n
Poll results<\/p>\n
The Sunday Independent\u2019s Ireland Thinks poll over the weekend put his personal rating at its lowest level since he became leader in 2024.<\/p>\n
The poll also found that six out of 10 voters consider him unqualified to be minister for finance.\u00a0Fine Gael support remained unchanged at 18%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the drama surrounding the party ahead, one Fine Gael TD told The Journal there aren\u2019t any jitters in the party around the poor poll results in recent weeks or around the unfavourable media coverage of Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon is getting blamed for the missteps of others. I don\u2019t get the sense from anyone [in the parliamentary party] that this is Simon\u2019s fault,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone I talk to feels like there was a combination of missteps, not from Simon, combined with bad luck in terms of Patrick\u2019s health, and the timing of Simon being absent on paternity leave has made the run into this not great; let\u2019s be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon is a very popular leader amongst the members and parliamentary party. That I suppose does mark him out in a way that is maybe different to Leo, more like Enda,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This TD said everyone in the party is annoyed with whatever minister briefed The Sunday Times about Patrick\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, universally, everyone thinks that was below the belt and shouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d the TD said, adding that broadly most people agree that O\u2019Donovan\u2019s response to that was \u201cover the top\u201d, pointing out that it should have been something that was dealt with behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
This TD claimed the party is \u201cvery unified\u201d, and that\u00a0O\u2019Donovan is a \u201cvery popular person in the party\u201d, but they also believe he\u00a0got it wrong with RT\u00c9 and how he handled its budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most people feel he got it wrong by accusing whoever did [the anonymous briefing] of betrayal and elevating this story again and I suppose, bringing trouble on all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this TD said the polling numbers are of little concern right now, the increasing poll numbers for right-leaning parties, such as Aont\u00fa and Independent Ireland, of late might explain why there has been talk of Fine Gael giving up on \u2018woke\u2019 ideals.<\/p>\n
A motion is being put forward at the ard fheis for the party to move away from \u2018woke\u2019 issues.<\/p>\n
Move away from \u2018woke\u2019 issues<\/p>\n
Fine Gael leaders, such as Leo Varadkar and Harris, have long laid claim to leading the country in a progressive direction, with the passing of the marriage equality referendum and the repealing of the Eighth Amendment when it came to abortion rights.<\/p>\n
But now it seems the Fine Gael party is saying \u201cthat\u2019s enough of that now, we\u2019ve made enough progress\u201d, and are instead talking about getting back to their \u201ccore principles\u201d.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to hear this week just what exactly those core principles are.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all the O\u2019Donovan controversy last week, Harris did put out a statement, addressing the need for more scrutiny of\u00a0non-governmental organisations (NGOs), something parties such as the Social Democrats hit out against.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was also mention of a recent ad on consent produced by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre where Harris said citizens don\u2019t need to be \u201clectured\u201d through ad campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The controversial ad, which was removed after intervention by Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>, depicted a child shown as uncomfortable with receiving a hug from her grandparents.\u00a0<\/p>\nIt sparked intense backlash online before its removal, with some commentators querying the funding behind the ad.<\/p>\n
The ard fheis in Cork this weekend will be an important juncture for Harris.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His address to his party members will be closely watched, particularly when it comes to any hints of baby steps to the right for the party.<\/p>\n
While some TDs are batting away suggestions that the polling numbers matter that much, the recent controversy surrounding its leader and the mile-long column inches that have been filled by it may well knock the confidence of party members.<\/p>\n
The mood of delegates at the University College Cork (UCC) venue will be closely observed this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With additional reporting by Jane Matthews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00c1NAISTE SIMON HARRIS got a lashing in the newspapers at the weekend over the fallout from his handling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3775,285222,42,43,13400,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-673332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fine-gael","tag-fine-gael-ard-fheis","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-patrick-o","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}